Dip tube is stuck, and poppets on Firestone kegs are jerks. Help?

Hey all,

I just got through a 36 hour cleaning binge with my 5 "new" cornies, and I have two separate questions I was hoping for input on:

1) The only parts I didn't keep separated when were cleaning were the dip tubes; now, I've got four kegs which any of the five dip tubes will fit nicely in, and one keg which won't accept ANY of them -- they just get wickedly stuck about 1/4 of the way in. Of course, I only discovered this after trying to FORCE a dip tube in, scratching it to high heaven in the process (whoops). Is there an easy solution? My first thought was to drill out the post opening, but that seemed drastic...

2) So it looks like all of my kegs are firestone. This means that each and every poppet is a total jerk and takes an incredible amount of effort to coax out, teeny tiny leg by teeny tiny leg, and then just as much effort to make sure the legs are in the right shape to sit back on the ledge inside the post when they go back in. Urgh! From what I can tell, MOST kegs just have the poppet fall right out. Does anyone have any helpful advice for making removing these poppets less of a total pain in the rear?

I also have a Firestone keg that the poppets are a pita. In fact you can't interchange them or the gas side leaks the purging co2 back out. I was planning on just replacing them with new ones. Is this a common Firestone issue I hadn't read about?

Are they straight dip tubes or angled dip tubes? If they are angled they might have gotten a little bent. Try to bend it a little right were it gets stuck. Also on some kegs the gas dip tube is skinnier than the liquid tube. Make sure you are inserting it where the "out" post goes. Also to get the poppet out try pushing real hard with a chopstick from the top, sometimes you need to give it one quick hit with a hammer on the chopstick and it should pop right out.

Hi

I just finished playing with a couple dozen kegs. About 2/3 of them were Firestones. I did keep the poppets with the posts and the tubes. I didn't run into any trouble with any of them. There are indeed several different designs, I figured the parts would not interchange...

Bob

Jonus86 said:

I also have a Firestone keg that the poppets are a pita. In fact you can't interchange them or the gas side leaks the purging co2 back out. I was planning on just replacing them with new ones. Is this a common Firestone issue I hadn't read about?

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carlisle_bob said:

I did keep the poppets with the posts and the tubes. I didn't run into any trouble with any of them. There are indeed several different designs, I figured the parts would not interchange...

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Sorry gents, but to be clear, are you saying that the poppets themselves aren't interchangeable? Though I kept each pair of poppets associated with each keg and posts, I didn't bother trying to keep individual poppets ands posts matched. Has anyone else had experiencing in "mixing and matching" firestone poppets?

That's is what I was saying is the poppets are not interchangeable I don't have the tube problems. Reasearch online says poppets are interchangeable but mine leak unless they are put back on the valve they came from. That's why I figured buying a new set of ball lock valves would fix my problem.

Since none of your dip tubes will fit in that one keg, it kind of rules out a kink in the dip tube. I probably wouldn't hesitate too much to try drilling it out, though I would try and use a bit that is the same size as the spec for the hole.

As for the poppets, I have slightly bent and/or cut off the little legs on the poppets to make them easier to remove and make them more interchangeable. Do this at your own risk, but it has worked for me.

Adam